Free Republic

Tourists visiting the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City can read its brochures in 10 different languages – but Arabic is not one of them. Nor will it be any time soon. “Nine languages are spoken by over 97 percent of our visitors: English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Italian, Japanese and Russian,” a representative from the memorial told the New York Post. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, claiming Arabic is the world’s fourth-most-spoken language, is sending letters to memorial coordinators demanding answers on why the language is not included. But it appears that the Arabic community is looking for...

Before construction began on the World Trade Center in the 1960s, a vibrant Arab-American community lived and worked in the shadow of what would become the Twin Towers, the two New York skyscrapers destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. As Wednesday's 12th anniversary of the attacks draws near, local historians are asking the September 11 Memorial Museum to include a reference to the neighborhood, known for more than 50 years as "Little Syria," in its permanent exhibit.

The area around the World Trade Center was once the center of Arab-American life in New York City. But all that remains of sprawling "Little Syria" are three buildings: a community center, a tenement building and a church. Activists from Save Washington Street are trying to have these fading memories recognized at the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

Little Syria is facing a big problem. Activists are rallying to save the last vestiges of America’s first Arab-American neighborhood before it’s too late — but the city doesn’t think the buildings are worth it. “Most people don’t realize that the center of Arab life was in the shadow of the World Trade Center,” said Todd Fine, an organizer with Save Washington Street, a campaign to preserve the surviving two buildings of New York’s once bustling Syrian quarter. “The fact that it’s near Ground Zero makes it trickier to talk about,” he said. “Yet this should have been protected wherever...

I don’t know just where the Washington area ranks in income distribution among American cities. I do know just by looking that it must be high. Here we are in the midst of the Great Recession and the place is booming. Big, bulky office buildings, prestigious new apartments, McMansions in the suburbs, four-star hotels all over, fancy restaurants, thriving cultural centers, a convention center, on and on. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75200.html#ixzz1sGsLELna

In 1891, Yusuf Sadallah arrived in Lower Manhattan from the town of Baskinta, in the part of the Ottoman Empire that is now Lebanon. Going by the name of Joseph Sadallah, he set up a trading shop on Washington Street, where other immigrants from the Levant — Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians — had created a vibrant Arab quarter known as Little Syria. Most residents were Christian, their loyalties divided only between St. George’s Syrian Catholic Church at 103 Washington Street and St. Joseph’s Maronite Church at 57 Washington Street, later at 157 Cedar Street.

Most of them seem like they don't even like her if they have had even heard of her.

Rather funny melodrama. Durbin calls Coburn to the floor to explain himself.

Normally on Sunday nights, there is a thread for the Terry Anderson show about immigation on KRLA at 9PM Pacific time. Today I went to his website at www.theterryandersonshow.com, but my browser and Google warned that it had been hacked (was an "attack" site...). Anybody know what's up? Will the program be on KRLA tonight? http://krla870.townhall.com/

See the HTML tags below. People should be outraged that they are so blatantly using the implementation of this website for political purposes. The website was first requested and established by OMB before Obama was even inaugurated, even though it wasn't authorized and probably violated standard government domain rules. The White House also uses this premier WebTrends marketing and analytics service (See http://www.whitehouse.gov/includes/webtrends.js). Is it really appropriate to spend taxpayer money to track viewers of a government website through a private marketing analytics company? Doesn't this indicate the degree to which the Obama White House, as opposed to OMB or...

Q: Who runs Recovery.gov? A: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act establishes an oversight board of inspectors general (the watchdogs of government) called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which is responsible for overseeing Federal agencies to ensure that there is transparency and accountability for the expenditure of recovery funds. For the interim period until that board becomes operational, the President has coordinated a team from across Federal agencies to track Recovery Act dollars and report findings on this website.

On Friday, many people noticed that the federal government established a website entitled Recovery.gov. It includes a graphic of "Recovery.gov" in the normal Obama campaign-style typeset, and it contains the following message. "Recovery.gov: Check back after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to see how and where your tax dollars are spent. An oversight board will routinely update this site as part of an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government." Aside from the creepy potential for this website, there seem to be several immediate legal concerns. 1. Why should the...

<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When the nation’s in pain, Washington often gains. Whether it’s a buildup of Civil War troops, Depression-era bureaucrats or defense contractors after Sept. 11, the region has prospered in times of crisis. Today, the financial meltdown is delivering a jolt of its own.</p>

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 18, 2002 THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much for that kind welcome. I'm here for a couple of reasons. First, I want to thank you all for your service to the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. (Applause.) I'm here to celebrate National Homeownership Month, because I believe owning a home is an essential part of economic security. And I'm concerned about the security of America. (Applause.) ... One of the things that we've got to do is to address problems straight on and deal with them...

House Republicans said they want to eliminate several provisions from a working version of the financial rescue bill as principles from both sides of the Capitol went into negotiations Saturday afternoon. House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said a number of issues must still be settled as Congress tries to reach a deal quickly. “There are a lot of [issues] still on the table and while I think there’s good will between both chambers and both parties there are a lot of conversations still occurring” Boehner said. Republican Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said earlier on Saturday that putting an...

It looks like the Republican House is getting its mojo back. Certainly deserves its own thread.

Fortunately we took two screenshots so that the weasal can't pretend he didn't say it.

See the link he has posted on his website: http://www.michaelmoore.com/ "August 31st, 2008 -- Show Us the DNA!; Claim: Palin is the grandmother of her 'daughter'" The liberals have gone beserk! Someone should post a screenshot of this in case he takes it down.

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died this evening. He was 97. Hinckley's life spanned the 20th century, a time marked by LDS global outreach and technological advances. Hie saw his church evolve from a tiny sect in the Intermountain West to a respected religious movement with more than 13 million members worldwide. He embraced each new communication device, from radio to satellite to YouTube, as a chance to spread the Mormon word. He began his career in the 1930s as a missionary defending the faith on a soapbox in London's Hyde Park...

WASHINGTON -- Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire yesterday used his last major floor speech as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to blast his own party's leadership in Congress, accusing Republican leaders of engaging in the type of fiscal recklessness that he said led voters to oust the GOP from power. Gregg, who will give up the Budget Committee gavel when his party relinquishes control of Congress in January, issued his unusually harsh critique in reference to a sweeping tax-cut bill that Republicans were rushing through in the final hours of the congressional session. "The American people took the...